Why Being a Workaholic Hurts Your Business
You know those business owners who are constantly—and I mean nonstop—working, answering emails, and taking phone calls? Maybe you're one of these workaholics. They (or you) seem to think that the more they work, the most successful their businesses can be, when in fact the opposite is true.
The more you work, the less you accomplish. Seems counterintuitive, but it's true.
Why being a workaholic doesn't always work for business owners
I myself try to balance the amount of time I spend at my desk with walks, coffee breaks, and the occasional nap. And you know what? My business never falls apart as a result. Here's why you shouldn't work so hard if you actually want to succeed in business:
Keeping your head down prevents you from seeing the big picture
He's been overquoted saying it, but Michael Gerber was onto something in The E-Myth Revisited: working in your business keeps you from being able to work on your business. If you fill your time with every tiny administrative task you can think of, you're really just spinning your wheels. This is stuff that you can hire someone to take care of. What your role should be is strategist, seeing the long-term potential for your business and determining how to get there. Sometimes that means sitting and thinking, not sitting and doing.
You're like a goldfish—you'll fill the amount of space you have
If you only have one hour to take care of priority tasks, you probably still get them done, am I right? Now what if you have eight hours? Or 36? You might get a few additional essentials taken care of, but I'm willing to bet you really don't accomplish significantly more than you would in that one teeny hour. But we humans have a tendency to fill our time with what seems important, but what is really just busywork. Spend less time working, and you'll address the most important things when you are working.
Burnout is prevalent
The more hours you spend on your business, the harder it is to recover. It's like exercise—experts tell you to give yourself a recovery day. Now, you might not need to take off every other day to avoid burnout, but you should step away from your business regularely so that your brain has time to recover. Thinking about work all the time is taxing! You need time to focus on something other than your business. And don't knock mindless activities like playing games on your tablet or binge watching Scandal. These are the recovery actions your brain needs to get back on track in the office.
Nobody (but your ego) cares that you work 60-hour weeks
Back when you had a boss, she might give you a nod of approval when she noticed you logging 60 hours of work a week. But you're in charge now, and there's no pay raise waiting for you for working endless, exhausting weeks. No one is going to be impressed that you work on the weekends. Sure, you like to moan about it to friends, but you probably don't see them much if you're working so hard. Understandably, you'll sometimes need to work extra hours, especially while you're first launching your business. Just don't let it become a habit.
More work does not equal more revenue
If you stopped to consider it, I imagine you don't see a direct corollary between how much you work and how much you earn (unless you have a ton of clients that you bill an hourly rate to). So why work more than you have to? For me, becoming a micropreneur was more about having time to do the things in life that I enjoy, not becoming a millionaire. There's an average number of hours I work to make a steady revenue, and beyond that, it's diminishing returns. So I give myself office hours and never break them.
It's unfortunate that the media has glamorized this workaholic mindset, because it really does none of us any good. When you die, what do you want on your tombstone: "She worked endlessly"? Or how about "She thoroughly enjoyed life."
